Protecting Your Heir
by Turtlesareontime
Summary: Third edition to Courtney the Vampire series. DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE READ COURTNEY THE VAMPIRE. It won't make any sense. You don't have to read Aztec temple before this but I would appreciate it if you did.


**I originally said that this had exactly 1,500 words and it did before I updated it and corrected some of my mistakes.**

**This is the second one-shot in the series. **

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**I won't even begin writing the actual sequel until either...**

**(A. _Courtney the Vampire_**** gets 100 REVIEWS.**

**_... OR ..._**

**(B. Both this one-shot and _Aztec Templ_****e get 15 REVIEWs each!**

**And that's final!**

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**Second one-shot of Courtney the Vampire series.**

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"Courtney?" Duncan called from the recently restocked kitchen. The room held everything anyone could ever need to make just about any meal their heart desired. Courtney usually cooked -she really did love modern day appliances- and then donated all the food, indigestible to vampires, she made to the soup kitchen across town.

"Yes, my darling?" Courtney replied, popping right out of thin air to wrap her arms around Duncan's waist and place her forehead on his left shoulder.

"I'm hungry..." Duncan trailed off, not meeting Courtney's eyes for fear she would see the desperate look that was caught in the icy blue depths of his own.

"Already?" Courtney asked, frowning she removed her arms from Duncan and took an unconscious step away from him.

"Yeah... sorry, Princess." He said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. Not liking the distance she'd put between them whether or not she was aware of herself doing it.

"No, it is alright. It's just... most vampires, even ones as young as yourself... _especially_ ones as young as you are, can go months in between feedings. And it's only been three weeks since we last were out..." Courtney had turned away from Duncan and was more or less talking to herself by this point.

"I know, you told me all that before." Duncan replied slowly. "But... I started to get hungry last week... I remembered what you said and thought... well... that it was nothing." Duncan whispered, oddly unsure of himself, his gaze never leaving the toes of his Nike running shoes.

Courtney spun around and jabbed him in the chest with her index finger, eyes blazing. "You never! Ever! Are to hide your hungry from me! It could kill innocent people! Or worse yet! YOU!" She hissed, her hair almost standing on end like a cat's would when it felt danger lurking. The implications hurt Duncan in a way he didn't know was possible.

He backed away slightly, right into the marble counter top. Never before had he seen the love of his life unleash her power in such a way. "I'm sorry." Duncan whispered, holding his hands up, knowing that a much _older_ and _experienced_ vampire was _extremely_ ticked off at him.

Courtney stared deep into his eyes for what seemed like forever, before her ebony glare slowly lost some of their icy cold blackness. "It is alright, my love." She said in a softly in a soothing voice as she reached up to stroke Duncan's cheek, placing her head against his solid chest. "You did not know... but now that you do..." Courtney pulled back from Duncan just enough to look deep into his eyes, making her point clearly so that there would be no chance of a misunderstanding.

"Got it." He assured her carefully and quietly as she once again placed her silky head against his pectoral muscles.

"Come then, we should get you something to eat." Courtney said after a long moment, and then she shimmered and disappeared out through a cracked open window.

Duncan stared after her, for the first time realized that she hadn't just been her normal gold color. Instead there were traces of green, blue, and red. "I wonder why I never noticed that before." He muttered, staring after her. Then shaking the feeling off Duncan declared, "No! She would have told me if something had changed." And with that he became a true gold color and too disappeared out into the night, still not quite able to shake his sense of unease or play it down to nothing.

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Courtney left Duncan sleeping in their day chamber before making her way back inside their home. She briskly walked towards the room that served as her 'bedroom' and pulled out her giant jewelry box. From it Courtney drew out a very thin gold chain and gingerly held it in her right hand.

Courtney made her way back outside and the down into the underground cavern where _The Great One,_ who had given Courtney guidance before, lay in wait.

"Please oh Great One, bless this sacred chain so that it may always protect your heir." Courtney called before flinging the small chain as far out into the underground pool that seemed to never end, as she could.

"I will come back tomorrow, just before dawn to see if you believe his is truly the One." Courtney whispered, bowing her head not only out of respect but sorrow.

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Duncan watched Courtney fling some sort of necklace chain out into a large underground pit of water. Not understanding in the slightest what was going on, Duncan knew it would be in his best interest to beat Courtney back to their resting place. But something, almost like an invisible force, held him in place until he was all alone in the cavern. Courtney had gone back up, leaving Duncan to try and figure out the symbolism of the ceremony he had just witnessed.

"I don't understand..." He muttered, shaking his head slowly as he drew nearer to the edge of the water. Sticking his hands in his pockets he rocked back and forth ever so slightly on the balls of his feet.

_You will in time... step into the water, my son... _A voice seemed to beckon from inside Duncan's head.

"No." He whispered, forcing himself to back away from the underground pool. Knowing, for some unexplainable reason, that he should _not_ go in the water. He turned around and began walking away from the opaque water.

_You have already become stronger than I anticipated..._ The voice echoed again, this time a chuckle was embedded into the voice's tone.

Duncan tensed and picked up his pace. Something else, something instinctive, kept him from using his ceata to free himself from the power in the cavern as quickly as possible. Instead Duncan marched purposefully all the way to the dirt wall he had started at before spiraling up and out of the ground. He moved so quickly that he actually found himself back to the spot where Courtney had left him, a whole half-a-second before she appeared. This was just enough time for Duncan to close his eyes and listen for her near silent arrival.

Courtney slowly sighed and stroked back a lock of hair from his face. Duncan knew that she already thought him asleep, so he refrained from moving. He couldn't quite figure out why but he didn't want to alert her of his consciousness.

It wasn't until she had curled into his side that Duncan thought about the oddity of him being faster than Courtney. Never before had this happened... it shouldn't have happened. It should never have been possible. Courtney would always be older than him and should always be stronger and faster than he could ever be as long as she lived.

Duncan realized that he would never allow Courtney to know of his powers, about them being greater than her own. Not because he thought she would be jealous, but because he feared she would become frightened _of_ him... instead of _for_ him... and that was something he would never allow.

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Courtney returned to the chamber the following morning, mere minuets before dawn, this time Duncan let her go alone. He was afraid to face the voice that commanded power from deep below the Earth's surface.

When Courtney reached the cavern she found suspended in the air -hung by what appeared to me nothing- the gold chain she had tossed into the pool. Courtney smiled in relief and clutched the small band to her, tightly for fear it would somehow slip out of her grasp. She quickly returned to Duncan's side and with painstaking care, placed the protective charm around his neck. Smiling all the while.

Thinking she would just explain the object to him in the morning, Courtney once again fell asleep in Duncan's arms.

Duncan, on the other hand, spent the entire day with his mind being filled with knowledge. It came pouring into him during the daylight hours. A thing that should not have been possible, for all vampires had to sleep during the day... they had no choice in the matter. A sense of lethargy washed over those who tried to stay awake, forcing them into a forced but restful slumber.

But somehow, the voice held Duncan captive... under a spell... awake. And the voice flooded Duncan's brain with thoughts, images, and secrets...

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**Hope you liked this... it was more or less just a set up for the non-one-shot sequel to Courtney the Vampire.**

**I could use your vote for what to call that one too... no hints on what it's about yet because I haven't started writing it yet.**


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